Daily Hassles

• Daily Hassles are minor but frequent causes of stress that are found in everyday life
• Lazarus (1980) argues that daily hassles provide a better explanation for stress related illness than life changes
• Primary Appraisal (Lazarus 1980) is how subjectively threatening a stressor is to psychological health
• Secondary Appraisal (Lazarus 1980) is how equipped we consider ourselves to be to deal with a psychologically threatening stressor
• Hassles and Uplifts Scale (HSUP Kanner 1981) is a self-report scale that measures the severity of positive and negative experiences an individual goes through in a day
• Life changes can cause daily hassles and so can be a distal (indirect) source of stress
• Daily hassles are regarded as proximal (direct) sources of stress
• The Hassles and Uplifts Scale (Kanner 1981) identifies 117 hassles and 135 uplifts that contribute to an individual's stress
• Kanner (1981) had 100 participants aged 45-64 complete the hassles and uplifts scale (HSUP Kanner 1981) every month for 9 months
• Kanner (1981) recorded life changes one month before the study based on what they had experienced in the previous 2.5 years and during the last month of the study participants rated the life changed they experienced while the study took place
• Kanner (1981) had participants complete the Hopkins symptom check for symptoms of depression and anxiety
• Kanner (1981) found that found a significant positive correlation between hassle frequency and symptoms of depression and anxiety that was stronger than the correlation between life changes and stress
• Kanner (1981) weakness; research is only correlational and cannot identify cause and effect
• Kanner (1981) weakness; research relies on retrospective self-report data
• Daily Hassles strength; Research support from Kanner (1981) who compared data found by the hassles and uplifts scale (HSUP Kanner 1981) and the social readjustment rating scale (SRRS Homles and Rahe 1967) and found a more significant positive correlation between daily hassles causing depression and anxiety than life changes
• Daily Hassles strength; research support from Ivancevitch (1986) who found that based on the daily hassles and uplifts scale (HSUP Kanner 1981) that daily hassles were a good predictor of poor health showing stress as it links to ill health HOWEVER this study is only correlational
• Daily Hassles strength; research support from Bouteyre (2007) who found a correlation between daily hassles and levels of depression in French psychology students based on Beck's depression index (1967) HOWEVER this research is only correlational
• Hassles and Uplifts scale (HSUP Kanner 1981) strength; considerate of individual differences in reactions to stress by using a rating scale for each daily hassle and uplift to measure its subjective primary and secondary appraisal by the individual meaning it considers how different individuals react to the same sources of stress
• Daily Hassles weakness; some psychologists would argue that life changes are a bigger cause of stress as they take more psychological energy to adapt to
• Hassles and Uplifts scale (HSUP Kanner 1981) weakness; relies on self report data which is subject to social-desirability bias especially when considering stress as someones emotional state which is heightened by stress can distort their interpretation of their daily hassles